On Monday the Coroner for South Wilts (Mr F H Trethowan) held an enquiry at Fonthill Gifford into the circumstances attending the death of a widow named Mary Sarah Hacker, at the age of 83, who fell from her bedroom window early that morning.

John Macey said he lived next door to the house in which Mrs Hacker lived alone. He had known her for ten years. She was an old age pensioner and Mr Morrison allowed her 2s a week. She was rather funny in her ways. At 5.15 that morning he heard groans while he was in bed, and on opening his window he saw Mrs Hacker lying on the brick pavement outside her house. He went downstairs and took her into her house, having to unlock the door first. He kept the key because she used to wander about at night with a candle, and she never minded him having it. There was no back door to the house. He found Mrs Hacker was unconscious when he picked her up, and his wife stayed with her while he went for a doctor.

Lucy Macey, wife of the last witness, stated that she was with Mrs Hacker when she died at 6 o’clock that morning. She was unconscious all the time that witness was with her.

Dr Blythe, of Hindon, said he had attended Mrs Hacker during the past 20 years. She suffered from dyspepsia, was very eccentric and had hallucinations. He saw her that morning at 9 o’clock and found that she was dead. The body was bruised on both sides. Death was, in his opinion, due to shock and exposure.

The jury returned a verdict that “the cause of death was shock and exposure, caused by her accidentally falling from an upstairs window in her house, to the ground.”